# Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics – Men's 200 metre individual medley

The men's 200 metre individual medley event at the 1996 Summer Olympics took place on 25 July at the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center in Atlanta, United States.

## Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.
| World record | Jani Sievinen (FIN) | 1:58.16 | Rome, Italy | 11 September 1994 |
| Olympic record | Tamás Darnyi (HUN) | 2:00.17 | Seoul, South Korea | 25 September 1988 |
The following records were established during the competition:
| Date | Round | Name | Nationality | Time | Record |
| 25 July | Final A | Attila Czene | Hungary | 1:59.91 | OR |

## Results
### Heats

Rule: The eight fastest swimmers advance to final A (Q), while the next eight to final B (q).
| Rank | Heat | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | 4 | Jani Sievinen | Finland | 2:01.05 | Q |
| 2 | 3 | 2 | Marcel Wouda | Netherlands | 2:01.21 | Q, NR |
| 3 | 3 | 5 | Matthew Dunn | Australia | 2:01.44 | Q |
| 4 | 5 | 5 | Curtis Myden | Canada | 2:01.50 | Q |
| 5 | 5 | 3 | Greg Burgess | United States | 2:01.93 | Q |
| 6 | 4 | 4 | Tom Dolan | United States | 2:01.99 | Q |
| 7 | 3 | 4 | Attila Czene | Hungary | 2:02.10 | Q |
| 8 | 4 | 6 | Xavier Marchand | France | 2:03.17 | Q |
| 9 | 5 | 6 | Luca Sacchi | Italy | 2:03.24 | q |
| 10 | 3 | 6 | Tatsuya Kinugasa | Japan | 2:03.42 | q |
| 11 | 4 | 7 | Martin van der Spoel | Netherlands | 2:03.75 | q |
| 12 | 4 | 5 | Christian Keller | Germany | 2:03.82 | q |
| 13 | 3 | 3 | Stev Theloke | Germany | 2:04.23 | q |
| 14 | 4 | 2 | Jo Yoshimi | Japan | 2:04.49 | q |
| 15 | 2 | 4 | Serghei Mariniuc | Moldova | 2:04.99 | q |
| 16 | 5 | 8 | Ratapong Sirisanont | Thailand | 2:05.18 | q |
| 17 | 5 | 2 | Marcin Maliński | Poland | 2:05.42 | |
| 18 | 2 | 5 | Josef Horký | Czech Republic | 2:05.45 | |
| 19 | 5 | 7 | Petteri Lehtinen | Finland | 2:05.51 | |
| 20 | 1 | 4 | Walter Soza | Nicaragua | 2:06.15 | NR |
| 21 | 2 | 3 | Valērijs Kalmikovs | Latvia | 2:06.16 | |
| 22 | 3 | 7 | Attila Zubor | Hungary | 2:06.24 | |
| 23 | 3 | 1 | Sergiy Sergeyev | Ukraine | 2:06.30 | |
| 24 | 2 | 2 | Oleg Pukhnatiy | Uzbekistan | 2:06.39 | |
| 25 | 2 | 6 | Krešimir Čač | Croatia | 2:06.97 | |
| 26 | 2 | 7 | Kim Bang-hyun | South Korea | 2:06.99 | |
| 27 | 2 | 1 | Arsenio López | Puerto Rico | 2:07.09 | |
| 28 | 4 | 3 | Simon Coombs | Australia | 2:07.31 | |
| 29 | 2 | 8 | Mark Kwok Kin Ming | Hong Kong | 2:07.61 | |
| 30 | 4 | 8 | Denislav Kalchev | Bulgaria | 2:08.16 | |
| 31 | 1 | 7 | Aleksandr Savitsky | Kazakhstan | 2:08.78 | |
| 32 | 5 | 1 | Desmond Koh | Singapore | 2:08.99 | |
| 33 | 1 | 2 | Armando Serrano | Colombia | 2:09.67 | |
| 34 | 4 | 1 | Gerald Koh | Singapore | 2:11.76 | |
| 35 | 1 | 5 | Kire Filipovski | Macedonia | 2:11.90 | |
| 36 | 1 | 3 | Wan Azlan Abdullah | Malaysia | 2:12.11 | |
| 37 | 1 | 6 | Sultan Al-Otaibi | Kuwait | 2:19.77 | |
| | 1 | 1 | Hem Lumphat | Cambodia | DSQ | |
| | 3 | 8 | Peter Mankoč | Slovenia | DSQ | |

### Finals
#### Final B

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| 9 | 6 | Christian Keller | Germany | 2:02.90 | |
| 10 | 3 | Martin van der Spoel | Netherlands | 2:03.01 | |
| 11 | 4 | Luca Sacchi | Italy | 2:03.49 | |
| 12 | 2 | Stev Theloke | Germany | 2:03.94 | |
| 13 | 1 | Serghei Mariniuc | Moldova | 2:04.11 | NR |
| 14 | 5 | Tatsuya Kinugasa | Japan | 2:04.59 | |
| 15 | 8 | Ratapong Sirisanont | Thailand | 2:05.02 | |
| 16 | 7 | Jo Yoshimi | Japan | 2:05.42 | |

#### Final A

| Rank | Lane | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | 1 | Attila Czene | Hungary | 1:59.91 | OR |
| | 4 | Jani Sievinen | Finland | 2:00.13 | |
| | 6 | Curtis Myden | Canada | 2:01.13 | NR |
| 4 | 5 | Marcel Wouda | Netherlands | 2:01.45 | |
| 5 | 3 | Matthew Dunn | Australia | 2:01.57 | |
| 6 | 2 | Greg Burgess | United States | 2:02.56 | |
| 7 | 7 | Tom Dolan | United States | 2:03.89 | |
| 8 | 8 | Xavier Marchand | France | 2:04.29 | |